Display devices such as television sets and movie projectors often incorporate a modulator for the purpose of distributing light into a two-dimensional pattern or image. For example, the frames of a movie reel modulate white light from a projector lamp into shapes and colors that form an image on a movie screen. In modern displays light modulators are used to turn on and off individual pixels in an image in response to electronic signals that control the modulator.
Texas Instruments introduced a microelectromechanical light modulator called a digital mirror device which includes millions of tiny mirrors on its surface. Each mirror corresponds to a pixel in an image and electronic signals in the chip cause the mirrors to move and reflect light in different directions to form bright or dark pixels. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,732 incorporated herein by reference. Stanford University and Silicon Light Machines developed a microelectromechanical chip called a grating light modulator in which diffraction gratings can be turned on and off to diffract light into bright or dark pixels. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,360 incorporated herein by reference.
Both of these reflective and diffractive light modulation schemes for displays involve two-dimensional arrays of light modulator elements. However, it is also possible to make a display in which light is incident on a linear array of high speed light modulators. With appropriate magnifying optics and scanning mirrors, a linear array can be made to appear two-dimensional to an observer. Through the scanning action of a vibrating mirror a single row of light modulators can be made to do the work of as many rows of modulators as would be necessary to provide a real two-dimensional display of the same resolution. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,553 incorporated herein by reference.
Manhart introduced a display apparatus including a grating light-valve array and interferometric optical system. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,102 incorporated herein by reference. In Manhart a display system employs a planar grating light-valve (GLV) array as a spatial light modulator for representing an image to be displayed. The system relies for image representation on the position of moveable reflective elements of the GLV array, which move through planes parallel to the plane of the array. The moveable elements provide, from an incident phase-contrast wavefront, a reflected phase-modulated wavefront representing the image to be displayed. The displayed image is provided by interferometrically combining the phase-modulated wavefront with a reference wave-front also formed, directly or indirectly, from the incident phase-contrast wavefront.
Many microelectromechanical light modulators are compatible with digital imaging techniques. Digital information may be sent electronically to the modulator. For example, gray scale images may be achieved by turning pixels on only part time. A pixel that is switched from bright to dark with a 50% duty cycle will appear to an observer to have a constant intensity half way between bright and dark. However, the pixel must be switched between bright or dark states faster than the human eye's critical flicker frequency of roughly 30 Hz or else it will appear to flicker. Therefore two-dimensional digital light modulators for displays must switch between states quickly to display a range of light levels between bright and dark.
A one-dimensional digital light modulator array, scanned by a vibrating mirror to make it appear two-dimensional, must incorporate modulators with fast switching speeds. Each modulator element must switch on and off quickly to provide the impression of gray scale and this action must be repeated for each pixel in a line within the scanning period of the mirror. Grating light modulator devices in particular exhibit high switching speeds because their mechanical elements move only very short distances. The grating light modulator incorporates parallel ribbon structures in which alternating ribbons are deflected electrostatically to form diffraction gratings. The ribbons need only move a distance of one quarter wavelength of light to switch a grating on or off. It is also possible (and desirable in many instances) to operate one- or two-dimensional light modulators in analog, rather than digital, modes.
Gudeman proposed an interferometric light modulator based on a mechanical structure very similar to the grating light modulator; see U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,354 incorporated herein by reference. Gudeman's light modulator is a form of Fabry-Perot interferometer based on a ribbon structure.
Microelectromechanical light modulators typified by the Texas Instruments' digital mirror device and Stanford/Silicon Light Machines grating light modulator devices mentioned above have already enjoyed wide commercial success and have spawned other related designs. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,724,515 incorporated herein by reference.
The digital mirror device is comparatively slow and therefore is usually supplied as a two-dimensional mirror array. Usually two dimensional modulator arrays are more expensive to make than one-dimensional arrays and require a sophisticated addressing scheme for the mirrors. A two-dimensional array requires defect-free manufacturing of N×N pixels over a large chip area while a one-dimensional array with the same image resolution requires only N working pixels on a chip in a single line.
Grating light modulator devices, while very fast, have limitations due to diffraction. A grating light modulator has a reflective state or configuration and a diffractive state. In the diffractive state incoming light is diffracted into the +1 and −1 diffraction orders of an optical grating. However, only about 80% of the light is collected in these two orders.
An interferometric light modulator that has many desirable features was disclosed in “Differential interferometric light modulator and image display device,” U.S. Pat. No. 10/904,766 filed on Nov. 26, 2004, incorporated herein by reference. That device features high speed and high contrast. The interferometric design means that light is not lost in higher diffractive orders (as can be a problem in diffractive devices), nor does it require discriminating diffracted from undiffracted light.
In U.S. Pat. No. 10/904,766 a novel light modulator incorporates a polarizing prism to split light beams into components of orthogonal polarization. These polarization components are made to travel unequal distances in the modulator and are then recombined in the prism. When one polarization component is phase shifted with respect to the other, the overall polarization of the recombined beam is transformed. The polarization of the recombined beam is then analyzed by a polarizing beam splitter. Light intensity output from the polarizing beam splitter depends on the polarization state of the incident light beam which in turn depends on the relative phase shift of the polarization components.
A phase shift is imparted to the orthogonal polarization components in the modulator by focusing them on, and causing them to reflect from, an engineered, uneven surface. This phase shift surface has regions of slightly different displacement which cause the light beams to travel slightly different distances upon reflection. A novel microelectromechanical system (MEMS) ribbon array device is provided that is used to modulate the phase shift of light beams reflected from the surface of its ribbons.
Generalized and improved interferometric light modulators were disclosed in “Differential interferometric light modulator and image display system,” U.S. Pat. No. 11/161,452 filed on Aug. 3, 2005, incorporated herein by reference. Optical polarization displacement devices, designs for MEMS optical phase shift devices and compensation schemes to improve field of view were described.
In U.S. Pat. No. 11/161,452 a differential interferometric light modulator and image display system comprises a polarizing beam splitter, a polarization displacement device and a MEMS optical phase shifting device. A linear array of MEMS optical phase shifting devices serves to modulate a line of pixels in the display. The polarizing beam splitter acts as both the polarizer and the analyzer in an interferometer. The polarization displacement device divides polarized light from a polarizer into orthogonal polarization components which propagate parallel to one another. The MEMS optical phase shifting device, or array of such devices, imparts a relative phase shift onto the polarization components and returns them to the polarization displacement device where they are recombined and sent to the analyzer. The MEMS optical phase shifting devices are electronically controlled and convert electronic image data (light modulation instructions) into actual light modulation.
Further development is always possible, however. It would be desirable to have a polarization light modulator design that is as compact as possible. Brightness and high contrast are important features of displays and are in need of continual improvement. For some applications, such as head-mounted displays, a viewer designed to be placed close to an observer's eye is needed.